


Merciless; Mercenary

by Nakimochiku



Series: 30 Lives and Chances [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombies, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-11
Updated: 2014-08-11
Packaged: 2018-02-12 17:38:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2118816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nakimochiku/pseuds/Nakimochiku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It's kinda creepy that you just...keep him like that."</p>
<p>Or, Jean and Marco find each other during the zombie apocalypse, and Marco has a strange tag along.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Merciless; Mercenary

"Its creepy that you just...keep him like that." Jean remarks, gazing back at rotting flesh, skeletal hands clawing blindly at the dirt. "I mean.... I know you and him had a thing, but--"

"I don't wanna talk about it." Marco replies, and gazes at Eren himself. His eyes are blank and clouded, where they'd been a vibrant green. He misses the vibrant green of his eyes more than anything else, the way they'd sparkled had been proof he was alive, human. Now those eyes just stare and see nothing but flesh for consumption.

At night, Eren's moving corpse makes savage howling noises, like a guard dog at the front gate. Marco keeps him because it's prudent: he makes noises when he senses other corpses, his rotting flesh covers Marco's scent, and he hopes if anyone ever finds the cure, Eren will still be in one piece in otder to recieve it.

Besides, it's not his fault he thinks of Eren, belts of ammo strapped to his waist, machete in one hand and gun in the other, a merciless angel of death, mercenary in his cruelty as he hacks through flesh, putting bullets through empty eye sockets and dismembering straying limbs. It's not his fault he misses Eren, wants him back.

Creepy? Marco smiles, comes close enough to Eren's corpse to touch. Restrained as he is, he makes hungry noises and lunges against his chains, mouth open. Part of his face has rotted away, revealing gleaming yellow teeth in his bony jaw. Marco tosses him a bit of raw rabbit meat, and Eren falls upon it viciously.

He's glad he met up with Jean, against all odds. He might have gone mad with just Eren's corpse for company, shuffling along almost obediantly behind him, groaning and hungry and rotting. Sometimes he wonders if it wouldn't have been better to let Eren bite him; they'd be two corpses together, and maybe that would be nice. But that would have been a waste of Eren's life, Eren who begged him to put a bullet in his head before he could become a monster, before he could do something unforgivable.

Marco's weak. He couldn't just let Eren go, not like that.

"C'mon Marco. Wrap up your little pet corpse and let's hit the road before the day gets too hot." Jean tosses him a granola bar, and Marco bites into it gratefully, tugging at Eren's lead chain.

It's not like he and Jean really have a destination. They head east because it keeps the sun to their backs at the hottest part of the day, but it doesnt really matter where they go. There's nothing to be found but corpses. Corpses and walking corpses and scavengers of animals, dogs gone wild with their noses buried in the festering bellies of their owners.  A dog had attacked Eren once, and Eren had howled and torn the yipping thing limb from limb.

It's a savage world they live in now. 

Marco points out a gas station, and they leave Eren pinned to a bumper of a heavy truck to investigate. They find the crushed remains of a doritos bag, a couple boxes of fruit to go, and a case of mountain dew. Hardly nutritious, but better than the hot air they'd be running on in a day's time. 

"Water still running? Let's fill our bottles." Marco tosses Jean his collection of bottles, doesn't particularly enjoy the thought of how heavy his back pack will get with them and wonders if he can mock up some straps and get Eren to carry them for him.

Marco draws together all the supplies they can manage and Jean returns with the bottles and a packet of cigarettes. "You taken up smoking yet?" He asks, striking a match off his boot. He lights up and inhales, his shaking fingers steady.

"Nah. Need to keep my lungs good for running."

Jean makes a derisive noise, takes another long drag and breathes out a stream of smoke. "Don't think I care enough to run anymore." He says it so quietly, Marco doesn't think he was meant to hear. 

He turns to Eren, who struggles against his chain, almost frantically. His mouth draws tight, and when he thinks about it, he doesn't think he cares to run anymore either. Where would he go; dragging around the corpse of his lover, remembering going into battle with Eren at his back and knowing now all of that was over. He lets his head fall between his knees. If Eren hadn't left him, he could fight forever, now he doesn't know what he's fighting for.

"If our roles were reversed, he'd have been strong enough not to keep me." Marco murmurs. Jean glances at him, hands him his half finished cigarette, and Marco takes a grateful drag and manages not to cough.

"He'd have shot you right between the goddamn eyes." Jean confirms. He lights another cigarette. Marco watches, but doesn't take another drag of his, snuffing it out on the floor tile.  "But that crazy bastard...he'd have gone on a suicide mission. Wouldn't have stopped till he got every last one, because thats what you meant to him." Jean sighs. "You know, when I found you in the city, dragging that thing around...I thought you'd gone crazy."

Marco doesn't say he'd been damn near it.

"I thought maybe you were feeding it your own flesh or something. But no, you were fucking trapping rats for him to eat."

Marco shrugs, and looks out at Eren, who has nearly worked himself free of his chain. "Shit." He grunts, and goes to stand. Just then Eren looks up, and his eyes aren't so blank. For one heart stopping moment they are vibrant, blood lust green. Their gazes meet and Eren _roars_ at him. "Shit." Marco says again with more feeling, and goes for his gun and machete.

The corpses are on them that instant, bursting through the glass, cornering them. Jean yells, but Marco isn't listening. He's shooting, bullet to the forehead, swiping out when the horde, small though it may be,  got within his circle of space.

He hears Eren howling like a broken hungry thing. "Fuck. Fuck." He can hear Jean saying between gunshots. Marco barely hears his own heart beat and wonders if he isn't already dead. His circle of space is growing smaller, Jean voice growing higher pitched; and Marco laughs aloud and knows he is in fact already dead, his body just hasn't realized it yet. His gun clicks empty, and he laughs again, draws his other machete.

"Come on you rotting fucks." He snarls seperating hands from wrists and heads from necks with wild sweeps. 

An answering snarl from the right draws his gaze, and this corpse is big, with the kind of latent brute strength that snaps spines. In a wild flash its blind sided.

Eren goes at it teeth first, hungry, angry animal noises escaping as he digs him claws in and tears. Marco gapes, and only remembers he's still dangerously close to being eaten when a bony grip lands on his shoulder. He yelps, and Eren flies from the mess he's made onto the new threat like an attack dog. He grasps its head and kicks.

Marco can't help it, he cries; he knows that move, he's seen it a hundred times. Eren keeps fighting, claws and teeth rending as he howls his anger; merciless and mercenary. Jean and Marco are left in the aftermath, covered in gore and black blood, bullets spent and chests heaving. Satisfied with the carnage he's wrought, Eren hunkers down and starts eating the remaining flesh.

"What the fuck?" Jean fills in. Neither of them can take their eyes off Eren. At the noise, Eren turns to Marco, licks his withered lips. His teeth drip red. Marco presses his lips together.

On one hand, he wishes he'd been strong enough to let Eren go. On the other, he's so glad he was strong enough to keep him.

 


End file.
